The Electric Lady by Janelle Monae

The Electric Lady, Janelle Monáe's second album, arrived on September 6, 2013, through her Wondaland Arts Society with Bad Boy and Atlantic, and it picks up the saga she started on The ArchAndroid three years earlier. It serves as the fourth and fifth chapters of her seven-part Metropolis concept series, which tells you exactly how big she was thinking.

Musically it's a grand, genre-hopping spread, with funk and gospel rubbing shoulders with jazz, reggae, pop, rock and hip-hop-flavoured soul, all stitched together with the showmanship of someone who treats an album like a stage revue. "Q.U.E.E.N." and "Givin' 'Em What They Love" are the funkiest, most strutting moments. Critics lined up to praise it, just as they had for the debut, and it entered the Billboard 200 at number five.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.